Nashi
by Dragon'sHost
Summary: When Lucy tries her hand at writing a detective mystery novel, she finds it much harder than she anticipated. Luckily, her friends are the sort to attract all kinds of mysteries to themselves for her to solve. The real mystery though, is why Cobra (of all people) seems intent on "assisting" her.


**Welcome to CoLu Week 2019! I'm super excited to present my contribution for this year. Especially since the chapters are unholy lengths. I'm also super excited to read what everyone else has come up with.**

**I hope you enjoy the story!**

* * *

**Day 1: Thread**

* * *

Peace and quiet was rarely in the cards for a day at the Fairy Tail guild hall, but it normally took a while for it to raise up to its normal level of din and chaos – which generally occurred around midday, when the guild members emerged from whatever dark corner they'd spent the morning nursing their hangovers in, or returned from morning jobs before heading out for the afternoon. So it was a surprise to Lucy to see so many people at the guild this morning and in a prime state of chaos. In fact, she hadn't seen this much hustle and bustle since that ill-fated S-Class trial long ago… though in a much different way.

"What… is going on, here?" Lucy questioned aloud, staring at the clutter and swarm of people. Tables and chairs were being carted out both the front and back doors, steam was pouring from the kitchen, there were plastic tubs scattered all around, and several members of the guild atop several ladders, hanging up some kind of… decorations? It was difficult to see exactly what they were at the moment, but that would make the most sense. And all of it performed under the watchful eyes of Freed and Evergreen, both of them outfitted with whistles and metal clipboards, inspecting and directing the traffic of people. "Is there a party or something going on? One I don't know about?" It had all the hallmarks of a party setup, but Lucy was certain that she would have remembered something like that being mentioned.

Also, was that Jellal she just saw, fleeing the kitchen and out the back door with near inhuman speed? Hard to imagine anyone else with blue hair being able to move that fast. Was his team here for the party? Why were _they_ invited when _she_ knew nothing about it herself?!

"Lu! Good morning!"

The sound of Levy's voice was music to Lucy's ears. "Good morning, Levy!" she greeted her friend, spinning on her heel to face her with what she hoped was a convincing smile plastered to her face. "The guild sure is busy, huh? Anything special happening today?"

Levy paused when she reached her, her face going blank for a long moment before it slid into nervousness. "Did… did no one tell you, Lu?"

_'No!'_ Lucy shouted internally. "No?" she questioned aloud, much softer than in her head. "What's going on?"

Grabbing Lucy's arm, Levy grinned at her and began pulling her towards the bar… and away from Elfman, swinging a large beam around on his shoulders. Cold sweat popped out on Lucy's forehead at the near miss, and she followed Levy without complaint. "It's Founders Day!" Levy informed her, pulling up a barstool and climbing onto it. "We celebrate it every year." The blue haired woman hesitated, and then let out a shaky laugh. "Or… I guess we used to celebrate it every year. This will be your first one, I guess. Honestly, I'm surprised that no one on your team said anything to you. It's a good thing you came to the guild today anyway!"

"Aha… ha…" More sweat ran down Lucy's face. Thanks to the kitchen and activity, it was uncomfortably warm inside the building compared to the early spring chill of outside, and her exasperation with her team wasn't helping matters. "I guess they forgot." She'd talk to them at length later about the oversight. "So… Founders Day?" The thought of it was intriguing, despite that this was her first time hearing about it. "Can you tell me about it?"

Levy shrugged slightly. "It's pretty much what it sounds like. We celebrate the founding of the guild. I heard that Warrod was supposed to be coming this year, actually, so I guess the organizers are going a little overboard compared to normal. Juvia, in particular, seems to be pretty excited over the whole thing. I heard from Gajeel that she's been helping Mira plan the menu for the past couple of weeks."

_'And yet they didn't say a word about it, either!'_ A muscle under Lucy's eye twitched. She hated being left out of something so important to the place and people she called home. "Is… is there anything I can do to help?" she volunteered, trying to salvage her pride.

It was both disappointing and relieving when Levy shook her head. "I think it's pretty much all covered. You could see if Freed and Evergreen have anything, or if Mirajane wants more help in the kitchen, though."

Given how fast she'd seen Jellal flee from there, Lucy was going to give that a hard pass. "I… think I'll just watch from here," she stated.

"Probably a wise decision," came a voice from behind the bar, startling Lucy severely. She whipped her head around and stared at the plainly-dressed man standing there with a bar towel thrown over his shoulder. "The demon is on a rampage in there. The stress is getting to her."

"C-Cobra?" Lucy squeaked, eliciting a smirk and a gleam of malicious amusement in the man's one eye.

"The one and only."

Lucy supposed it shouldn't surprise her to see the former criminal, given that she'd already seen Jellal scuttling through. But then again, it was definitely shocking to see a man with such a… poisonous reputation manning the bar. Especially if one wasn't prepared for it.

"It's not _that_ shocking," Cobra defended, his expression turning to one of mock offense. "I'll have you know that I'm just doing Kinana a favor. She's helping to set up the roasting pit outside."

_'So you say, but you look pretty comfortable dressed like a barman,'_ Lucy observed silently, a smirk of her own crawling across her face as the man bristled.

"You take that back!" he hissed at her. "Or I'm not serving you!"

"Alright, alright! I take it back!" Internally, she added, _'Although honestly I think that's the _least_ flashy thing I've ever seen you wearing.'_

"What did I just say?!"

The blonde raised her hands in mock surrender and laughed very unapologetically. "I'm sorry!"

Levy glanced between the pair, well aware that she was missing half the conversation, but resolved to piece together this puzzle on her own. A lightbulb went off in her head. Puzzle! "Oh right, that reminds me!" Levy declared, garnering Lucy's attention and curiosity. "I meant to ask earlier. How is your new novel coming along? This is a detective-based mystery one, right? I'm super excited to read it! Is the new chapter ready?"

All color drained from Lucy's face, as the events that led to her seeking out the guild this morning came hurtling back into her brain with all the force of a runaway freight train.

* * *

**_The Previous Day_**

Finally back from a job with her team that had been far more trouble than it had been worth, Lucy was dead tired. Her team had been even rowdier than usual, and Erza's veritable train of carts full of junk and Natsu's steadfast refusal to use transportation had slowed their return home by a full day. She was ready to just go home to her apartment, and her soft bed, and pass right out until morning. After the hell she'd just been put through, it was what she needed. It was what she _deserved_.

Sadly, it was not what the universe had in store for her.

The soft crinkling underfoot when she stepped into her apartment was her first clue that something was very wrong. Lifting her foot, Lucy inspected the brightly sparkling translucent objects stuck to it. They looked… sort of like wings – gossamer thin, and delicate. Glancing at the floor, she saw that it was positively littered with the things.

It was then that the humming reached her ears.

Turning the corner, Lucy saw the horrible nightmare that her apartment had become in her absence.

Thousands of termites crawled around her apartment, their mandibles working overtime as they sought out and destroyed all wood and paper in the place. Hordes more flew around, pausing only to chew through their own wings before they began their destruction. Skittering, they covered everything. Her desk, the fireplace, the bathroom, _her bed_.

Lucy gaped in abject horror, frozen in place by the shock of what she was seeing. A short scream eventually warbled its way out of her throat, and she brought out her gate keys, intent on _terminating_ the insects with extreme prejudice.

When the smoke had finally cleared, axe marks and arrows embedded in the walls had joined the carcasses littered around the room. Copious amounts of sand piled around her feet, Lucy could only gaze upon the damage with despair rising in her chest. Her window was missing, a stiff breeze coming through the gaping hole in the wall where it had once resided, and light shone on the broken shards of glass on the floor where the window had fallen when the trim had been consumed. Her bedposts contained what were unmistakably chewing marks. There wasn't enough left of her chairs for them to even be _called_ that anymore. Of her bedspread, not even a single cotton fluff remained.

And where her desk had once sat... now remained only a misshapen lump of porous wood and piles of sawdust in its place.

Of the manuscript she'd stored in its drawers, there was no sign.

And no backup copy.

* * *

**_The Present_**

"There's been some… unforeseen setbacks," Lucy informed Levy, her eyes and voice devoid of any soul.

Cobra spluttered with the force of holding back his laughter, the montage of scenes in her mind as clear as the fate that had befallen her unfinished manuscript. Doubling over, he wheezed and coughed, tears leaking from his one good eye.

"O-Oh," Levy stuttered, her eyes darting between Cobra's heavy mirth and Lucy's thousand-yard stare. "Um… I'm s-sorry to hear that. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help, okay?"

"Uh huh," replied Lucy, her voice coming out rather vague. "Thanks."

Fidgeting with the hem of her orange dress, Levy glanced between the pair again. "Okay. I'm… uh… I think there's something I need to help Jet and Droy out with. I'll talk to you later, alright, Lu?" When Lucy nodded, Levy hopped off the stool and disappeared into the crowd of bustling mages.

Straightening his spine, Cobra then cracked his neck, a grin plastered to his face. "Well, look on the bright side… there wasn't much progress on that thing in the first place. So it's not like you lost all that much."

Cobra's teasing snapped Lucy out of her daze. Turning a scowl on him, she huffed, "Doesn't change the fact that my apartment is still covered in dead termites." And slight water damage and sandblasting, which would be more difficult to explain to her landlady, but Lucy was kind of hoping that it would be forgiven or overlooked thanks to the circumstances.

Once she even returned to the apartment, that is. Unable to deal with the devastation the previous night, she'd checked into a hotel the night before. Instead of returning to her apartment, she'd opted to head straight to the guild this morning so she wouldn't have to look at the damage just yet. Lucy had been lucky in that her letters to her mother had been transferred to a metal box some time ago (thanks to an incident where Natsu nearly burned all of them by accident) so at least they had survived the infestation unscathed. Lucy didn't even need to pay for any of the damage, as the entire building had been hit, not just her. So her landlady would be covering the cost of replacing and repairing everything. A small mercy in the midst of the terrible situation.

But Cobra was infuriatingly correct about the lack of progress on her novel, all the same. Lucy sighed in defeat. "It turns out that writing mysteries is really, really hard. I've tried the genre before, but I thought that this attempt would turn out different. Maybe I'm just not cut out for writing this type of story. Too many moving pieces to keep track of. And I'm not even sure that the main mystery in it is all that convincing in the first place, either."

Instead of teasing or ridiculing her further, Cobra remained silent in the face of Lucy's confession. His expression turned to one of thoughtfulness – a sight heretofore unknown to Lucy.

"Hey," he chided, his face now becoming rather sour at Lucy's unvoiced observation. "It's not like you know me all that well. And here _I_ was, actually considering helping you. But now I'm not so sure I want to if you're going to be rude about it."

This piqued Lucy's curiosity. "Oh? What did you have in mind?" When he continued to glower at her, she coughed self-consciously. "Sorry," she added. "I'll try to keep an open mind." He had a point about not knowing him. They'd hardly ever interacted before. In fact, most of their interactions had been as enemies.

The dragon slayer grumbled something under his breath that Lucy didn't quite catch. Then he let out another disgruntled noise, and relented. "In detective novels, don't the main characters always have a mystery of their own that they're trying to solve? So why not put yourself in the character's shoes?"

She regarded him blankly. "So what… what are you getting at?"

He rolled his eye at her. "I mean that if you don't understand how to put together a mystery, why not try solving a real one?"

Lucy's first instinct was to outright dismiss the suggestion. "You… want me to solve a murder?" she questioned aloud, defeat crawling back into her soul. "I don't know what sort of dramas you've been watching lately, but civilians horning in on a police investigation is not something that's generally accepted." After a second's hesitation, she added, "And you might want to keep suggestions like that to yourself, or else some Rune Knight is going to get the wrong idea and possibly arrest you again…"

"No!" he protested, disgusted by her conclusion. "What sort of moron do you take me for? I'm not Natsu!"

"Hey!" Natsu shouted from atop a ladder, where he and Happy were stringing up decorations. "That was uncalled for, Cobra!"

Cobra ignored him. "No one's asking you to start big! There's little mysteries too, you know! Not just murder! And I'm reformed! Mostly."

The dig at her teammate and that incredibly suspicious '_mostly'_ aside, Cobra may have a point, Lucy realized. "Okay…" she tentatively acquiesced. "Just what sort of thing did you have in mind?"

He visibly hesitated.

"Didn't get that far, did you?"

Before he could snap something back at her, a commotion arose from the kitchen. "Get out!" Mirajane shouted. "And you! Take that off the heat! We're just prepping all of this, it doesn't need to be cooked right now! For goodness sakes stop _salting_ that, we want it to be _edible!_" There was a second of silence, before Mirajane's voice boomed, "_You. I said_ _get out_."

"Stingy!" Sorano yelled back at her over her shoulder, making good her escape from the kitchen with a plateful of purloined hors d'oeuvres and rapidly shoving them into her mouth as she fled.

A malicious grin spread across Cobra's face. "There," he said, sweeping an arm towards the kitchen. "There's your mystery. Solve Mirajane's conundrum, and maybe she'll stop driving all of us insane."

"What sort of conundrum?" questioned Lucy, confused, and more than a little understandably apprehensive about confronting an irate Mirajane. That generally did not end well for most people. Hell, Freed _still_ shuddered every time they brought up their mutual forfeiture during the Battle of Fairy Tail.

"Her kitchen twine has gone missing," Cobra informed her. "The kind she needs to bind the huge roast that Erza's supposed to be bringing in this morning. Solve the mystery of what happened to it, and then maybe she'll stop obsessively thinking about it and taking it out on everyone."

Lucy stared at him unblinkingly for a long moment. "That's… that's pretty… _mundane_, isn't it?"

"That's the point!" He rolled his eye at her again. "If you're not up to solving something so minor, maybe you should give the whole mystery genre thing a pass."

Now that annoyed her. "I'll do it! I'll prove that I can do this!" Then she paused, as a thought occurred to her. "Wait, couldn't _you_ solve this one pretty easily, yourself? Just read everyone's minds and find the culprit."

To her surprise, he shook his head. "Look, first of all, it's not strictly mind-reading."

Lucy's clenched fist hit the top of the bar. "_It's functionally the same_," she interjected through gritted teeth.

"No, it's not. Quit interrupting," he growled at her. "Like I was saying… it's not real mind-reading. Besides which, if you were standing in the middle of a crowd of people you didn't know, all of the voices would start to blend together, right?" Lucy reluctantly nodded. "And even if you were able to pick out the _one thing_ you wanted to hear, since you don't know that person's voice, you would have no idea who it belonged to." He made a sweeping gesture at the crowded guild. "Same logic applies."

Lucy rolled her shoulder in a half-shrug. "I don't know… you could always manually search everyone if it was bothering you that much."

"Hardly." Raising a hand to his head, he pointed at his temple. "I'd get a massive migraine if I tried that. Not to mention that it would take way too long, for too little reward. Not enough stakes to even consider attempting it."

She considered his point. "Alright, that makes sense."

"Besides which," he continued, "that method might not even work. If the culprit is circumstantial, or non-human, or if the culprit themselves doesn't even realize what they did, then I wouldn't be able to find them that way. Or they might not even be here right now."

"Okay, I get it! Point taken. There's drawbacks with your ability."

"And I'm busy," he finally added. "You, on the other hand, have nothing else to do. So if you don't want to order something to drink, I suggest you get hopping to it, Miss Detective."

"Hopping to it?" wondered Lucy aloud as Cobra walked away to serve someone else. "Who even says that anymore?" In what was turning out to be an infuriatingly consistent turn of events, though, Cobra had once again made a valid point. For some reason, she wasn't sure she liked the thought of that.

But now it left her with the question of where to even begin finding out more information. The obvious choice was to go to Mirajane directly and ask her about it… but given how she'd now seen _two_ convicted mass murderers flee her kitchen, and a third had delegated the task rather than deal with it himself, Lucy wasn't particularly thrilled about giving that option a shot. At least not until she had something resembling an answer for the woman. So where else could she go for the information she needed?

Lisanna might have some information, being Mirajane's sister and often up and going in the early morning hours at the guild along with her. She was up a ladder at the moment, though, hanging up decorations along with Natsu and the Exceeds. The Exceeds were also a viable option – Happy in particular was nosy, and they all had a good vantage point from the rafters. Also, if it was impacting the party preparations like Cobra had insinuated, there was a small chance that Freed and Evergreen – as the ones assigning duties – might know something about it.

Since they were on the ground as well, Lucy decided that Freed and Evergreen were the best starting point. Of the duo, Lucy was a little less intimidated by Freed, so she chose him to ask first.

"Good morning, Lucy," Freed greeted her when she approached him. "Are you looking for something to help out with?" He flipped through his checklists and timetable attached to his clipboard. His eyes darted through the information, quickly digesting it. "Most everything is already accounted for, but I'm sure I can find _something_ for you to do…"

Lucy held up a hand to forestall him. "Hold on a second! I'm actually on an errand already; I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions."

That made him look up. "Oh, I see. Well, then." He smiled at her, flipping his papers back to the front, and dropping it to his side. "How can I help?"

"I'm looking into Mirajane's… missing kitchen twine." Wow, that was embarrassing to say out loud. "Seems like it's causing some trouble with the kitchen preparations. And I thought it would be good to give her some peace of mind if I find out what happened to it."

The green-haired man looked surprised for a brief moment, but instead of questioning or dismissing the task itself (like Lucy was worried he might), his expression turned thoughtful as he considered it. "Afraid I don't know all that much," Freed stated, his gaze distant as he tried to recollect. "Mirajane arrived at the guild earlier than I did, and by the time I got here the twine was already missing. I've been too busy otherwise to look into it further. I did send Sawyer into town a while ago to find some more, but he hasn't come back yet." He turned to Evergreen. "Hey, Ever… you wouldn't happen to know anything about Mirajane's missing kitchen twine, would you?"

The woman shuddered violently, gooseflesh popping out all along her bare arms. "All I know is that you should steer clear of the kitchen if you know what's good for you," she advised Lucy. "Not only is the twine missing, but Erza's late with the meat for the roast. Mirajane is _incensed_. And we don't even have Mest available to fetch her or the roast, since he's bringing Warrod in."

'_Poor Mest_,' Lucy thought. '_That's got to be a brutal trip for him. Still, it's not like Erza to be late with something…'_

Cobra had mentioned that as well, come to think of it. "Our team didn't get back from our latest job until pretty late last night, so maybe Erza just overslept a bit," Lucy offered by way of explanation. "I'm sure she'll show up with the roast before too long. You know how much of a perfectionist she can be."

The pair exchanged a glance, then they both sighed and nodded. "That's true," Freed acknowledged. "At any rate, sorry we couldn't be of more help. You might ask Laki, though. She was here before I was, working on the furniture. So she might have heard more from Mirajane. She's resting over there." Freed pointed out where the purple-haired woman was slumped over on one of the few tables remaining indoors, her form downright catatonic.

"And Max was leading the cleaning efforts yesterday afternoon and this morning," interjected Evergreen. "Who knows, he might have found it already. I'm not sure where he's at right now, though. He might have gone home already."

"No, I sent him to the kitchen a while ago to help out in there. I thought he might be a calming influence on Mirajane." Sweat ran down the side of Freed's face. "Then again, I haven't seen him since, so maybe I was wrong about that."

That would certainly take the wind out of Lucy's sails if Max had found it already. Nonetheless, it was an excellent suggestion all the same. Provided that Max hadn't met an untimely end at Mirajane's hands, anyway. "Thanks, both of you. This helps me out quite a bit." She'd go with Laki first, though. Lucy still didn't want to brave the kitchen just yet. Besides which, if Max had found it in cleaning, he probably would have told Mirajane if he was in the kitchen. Then again, maybe he didn't know it was missing and wasn't aware that it was significant if he did find it. It was a lead worth following up on… but later. Laki first.

Yeah, the poor girl looked like she was half dead. Maybe she should bring her some water or something as a peace offering first. Which unfortunately necessitated talking to Cobra again.

So Lucy turned around and returned to the bar. Cobra didn't seem to notice her at first, his gaze distant. When Lucy tried following his line of sight, she only saw the decorations in the rafters – streamers, balloons, and strings of white flowers painted onto cardboard. Nothing particularly special, but maybe he was just spacing out. She waved a hand in front of his face, finally garnering Cobra's attention. Once she had it, Lucy then pointed towards Laki's comatose body in the corner. "I need some water for her."

Cobra peered in the direction Lucy was pointing. "Are you sure that's not a corpse? 'Cause I'm not hearing anything out of her. Seriously, there's nothing going on in her head. Not a peep. I think she's legitimately dead."

"Just give me the water already."

He grunted in annoyance that Lucy hadn't taken the bait he'd so kindly offered. "Making any progress?" he asked as he scooped ice into a glass and filled it with water. Then after a second of thought, he added a straw to it.

Lucy shook her head and took the glass from him. "Too soon to tell."

"Fair enough," he conceded. "Good luck."

The encouragement was a surprise to hear, but it did bring a smile to Lucy's face. "Thank you."

She left the bar and walked over to Laki, gently nudging her with her free hand. "Hey, Laki. I brought you some water. You feeling alright?"

Her friend raised her head and shakily reached for the glass. "Thank you, Lucy. You've saved my life."

The straw had been a kindness on Cobra's part, Lucy decided as she watched Laki drink. Otherwise the purple-haired woman might have spilled the water all over herself instead of getting it down her throat. "Feeling better now?" she asked when Laki finally stopped guzzling.

"Yeah. I've been up since before dawn making and repairing the guild furniture. I think I'm at my limit for today."

Sitting down next to Laki, Lucy gave her a curious look. "I didn't realize that the guild was in need of so much furniture, to be honest. What, did everyone decide hold a furniture breaking contest while my team was out of town for a few days?"

"Might as well have." Shaking her head, Laki sighed heavily. "It's worse. There's been an invasion all over town."

Laki's choice of words alarmed Lucy. "Invasion?!"

"Yeah. The vilest of foes to carpentry. My arch-nemeses." A shudder wracked her body. "Their squirming little bodies and shorn air scoopers will haunt my dreams."

Oh. The termites. They must have hit the town as a whole, not just Lucy's apartment. "That's a pretty wide infestation," Lucy commented.

Laki nodded. "It was pretty bad. I've been shoring up buildings all week, and helping Mirajane redo the kitchen. They ate the job board and all the flyers, too. Nab and Master Makarov were crying. Honestly I'm surprised that the guild is still standing after the damage they did to it. For a while there I thought we might have to rebuild it from scratch. Yet again."

It was now Lucy's turn to shiver at the implications of that. She also wondered, with a cautious, furtive glance at the ceiling timbers, if it was really all that safe to be inside the guild right now. Lucy tried to wrap her head around the sheer extent of the damage the termites had unleashed upon Magnolia. At this rate, they'd take away Fairy Tail's title of _Most Destructive Force in Fiore _(awarded officially by the Magic Council and the King just a month ago). "I think an infestation this large officially counts as a plague. Is this normal for Magnolia?"

"Not really. I imagine that the town is looking for an explanation, but I'm just trying to keep my head above the sawdust." Laki lifted her hand and started tallying with her fingers. "Furniture, wooden beams, utensils, string… Some people in town even had their clothes and money eaten. I've been really busy thanks to that. They even hit the Fairy Hills dorms."

_'Uh oh.'_ A sense of dread settled over Lucy. _'I had better take inventory of my apartment and see what survived. As soon as possible. I hope my money stash survived. And my closet. I didn't even think to check that. Wait, that's not what I came over here for.'_

Clearing her throat and her head, Lucy returned to the task at hand. "So, Laki. You were here really early this morning, right?"

"Yeah? Why?"

"I'm looking for Mirajane's missing…" Lucy heaved a sigh. "…Kitchen twine." Yeah that wasn't getting any easier to say. Still embarrassing. "I was wondering if you knew anything about that."

Laki shook her head. "Sorry. All I know is that, when I arrived this morning, Mirajane was already here, and I think the twine was already gone. There weren't all that many people around… I saw Max cleaning. Weirdly enough, I also saw Natsu and Happy. They were bringing in the decoration boxes with Lisanna and setting up the ladders. Does that help at all?"

"Actually, it does. Thank you." At least now Lucy could say that it was gone before most people arrived at the guild. So it likely went missing the night before. Then something Laki said before clicked into place in her head. "Hey, Laki… could termites eat twine? You said they could eat string and fibers, but what about twine?"

"Oh definitely," Laki confirmed. "Anything with plant cellulose, really. They'll even chew straight through plastic to get to it, too."

Lucy felt a grin spreading across her face. "Thank you, Laki! I might have a lead on what happened, now." She stood up to leave.

"Uh… hold on," Laki said, stopping Lucy in place by gently laying a hand on her arm. "I don't think the termites got to the twine again."

The blonde sat back down, her spirits deflating. "Are you sure?"

Laki nodded. "I had to help replace a lot of utensils for Mirajane, but twine isn't my specialty. So she went to the neighboring town to replace it herself, since it's so important for the roast. We ran through a checklist last night to make sure that we had everything we needed – including the twine."

Letting out a light laugh, Lucy shrugged helplessly. "Oh well, there goes that idea. But at least that eliminates one possibility. And it narrows down the timeline, too. Thanks again!"

"Good luck with your search!" Laki called out as Lucy left, before plonking her head back down on the table to disassociate some more.

With that lead played out, Lucy now had no choice but to check with Max in the kitchen. And, if she was feeling brave, with Mirajane as well.

Before she had a chance to make her way over there, however, a commotion erupted near the guild doors. Checking it out, Lucy smiled at the sight of Erza, bearing a truly monstrous lump of meat wrapped in wax sheets with her. Lucy strode up to her teammate to congratulate her on the hunt. "Wow, Erza! That's huge!" she said. When she got closer however, she almost recoiled at the state her friend was in. "Holy crap, your eyes look terrible. Those are some seriously impressive dark circles. Did you even sleep last night?"

Erza shook her head. "Not really. We got back from our job so late that I didn't really have much time to hunt and get a good cut of meat for today. Am I very late?"

A nervous laugh bubbled up out of Lucy's throat. "Maybe a bit. Mirajane isn't super thrilled right now. But that's not entirely your fault. She's under a lot of pressure at the moment."

The redhead shuddered violently. "I should take this to her right now, then."

"Hold on!" Freed protested, blocking her path. "That isn't going to fit through the kitchen doors. There's a preparation table set up around the back by the roasting pit for the meat, why don't you take it there?" He glanced around, spotting Lucy. "Lucy, can you let Mirajane know that the meat is here?"

"Sure thing," Lucy agreed. "I was heading to the kitchen, anyway." Plus, a bit of good news might make Mirajane more amenable to being questioned.

Looking around some more, Freed then zeroed in on Cobra, the dragon slayer switching with Kinana at the bar. "Erik, go show Erza where it is."

Cobra made a disgusted face at the order. "Why me?"

"I'm sure you just heard from Kinana which one it is, and you're off bar duty now," Freed reasoned. "Everyone else already has other tasks."

He relented much faster than Lucy expected him to. "Fine, fine."

_'Erik?'_ Lucy thought. This might have been the first time she'd heard his actual name. _'That name makes him seem… really normal. Well, almost normal.' _It certainly wasn't as intimidating a moniker as _Cobra_ was.

The man shot her a _look_, his one eye narrowed, but didn't say anything as he sulkily followed Erza back out the guild's doors.

_'Caught that, did he?'_ Lucy thought to herself as she walked over to the kitchen. _'He seemed almost as perturbed by it as I was.'_

Lucy paused at the threshold to the kitchen, taking a deep breath to steady herself. Hopefully her news would put Mirajane into a better mood and she'd be spared any residual malice. "Mirajane!" she called out, entering the kitchen.

The woman appeared beside her as if materializing from nothing. She had her usual cheery smile plastered to her face. "Yes?" she inquired, no trace of any anger whatsoever on her face or in her voice. "Did you need something, Lucy?"

Something about that smile, though, set Lucy's nerves on edge all the same. "Erza brought the roast and is bringing it to the preparation table out back. We thought you would like to know."

Mirajane's face relaxed into a more natural smile. "Excellent. Thank you for telling me, Lucy. I'll begin the seasoning process, then." Upon her subsequent departure, arms laden with all manner of herbs and spices, all of the kitchen helpers heaved great sighs of relief.

Spotting Max's blond hair in one of the corners, Lucy wound her way around the people preparing the side dishes. She waved to Meredy and Juvia, the duo giving her small waves and smiles in return. When Lucy reached Max, she discovered that he was hip-deep in potatoes – one bucket of peeled, and one bucket of yet-to-be peeled. He also wasn't alone with his piles of spuds.

"Good morning, Lucy!" his companion boomed out, a great smile on his face.

"Oh, morning, Lucy," Max added, looking up from the potato he was working on, his hands stilling.

"Good morning, Richard, Max," she replied back, her eyes drifting to Richard's hands, which had not slowed down in the slightest even though the man's full attention was focused on her. "I see you two got stuck with potato duty."

"I grew up on a potato farm!" Richard explained. "So this is actually quite nostalgic for me, oh yeah!"

Ah. That explained it.

Max chuckled self-deprecatingly. "As for me, I didn't escape Mirajane in time so she put me to work doing something simple."

That made sense, too. Lucy could easily see that happening. "I actually wanted to ask you something, Max."

"Sure. Go ahead."

"You cleaned the guild last night and early this morning, right?" she questioned.

"Yup, I did. And I'll have to do it again tonight, I expect." He let out a sigh. "Honestly we could use a professional cleaner, but I doubt Master Makarov will listen to my pitch."

Definitely a long shot, that. "I was wondering if you found any kitchen twine while you were cleaning."

"Kitchen twine?" Max seemed surprised at the query, and Lucy didn't blame him. "That's… a type of string, right?"

Lucy nodded. "Yeah, for tying up stuffed roasts and such."

The light dawned in his eyes. "Is _that_ why Mira is so…" He paused, trying to think of a word that wouldn't get him murdered if it got back to the person in question. In the end, he settled for a half shrug, and a tentative, "…Today?"

_'He avoided that like a pro.'_ Lucy was impressed. No wonder he was such a good businessman. "She's under a lot of pressure today. I was hoping to resolve some of it for her."

Gratefulness shone in his eyes. "You're a saint, Lucy."

Best not mention that it was originally Cobra's idea, then.

Then Max sighed. "Unfortunately, I don't really remember finding any. The guild only needed dusting this morning, anyway. I got pretty much everything else done last night. Sorry, I know that's not very helpful."

Lucy considered his words for a long moment. "About what time did you leave last night?"

"About… nine or ten," he answered. "I think Mirajane left just a little while after that. She usually locks up the guild at night, then unlocks it in the morning. I arrived at the same time she did this morning, at about… four or five? Wait… it was five-thirty. I remember because we were the only ones there, and I had to wait while she unlocked the building again. The phone rang the second we stepped inside, and I remember thinking that it was really strange to get a call that early at the guild. Especially since it was _right after_ it was unlocked." Then he shrugged, dashing Lucy's hopes. "Not that any of this means much. I'm pretty sure a number of people have a key. Including me. Though I forgot it today."

"Who all has a key?"

He considered it for a long moment, making a thoughtful noise. "Lisanna, the S-Class wizards… Makarov, of course. I think Mest has one. I know that there's at least two or three others, but I can't think of who at the moment. Sorry. I don't think all the windows get locked up at night, though, so this information might not be all that useful. There's not much at the guild worth stealing, and most people aren't stupid enough to burgle a guild renowned for powerful and destructive magic users, so security's not all that tight, to be honest. I don't think anything else went missing, either. At least not that I noticed. And who would be crazy enough stage a break-in just for kitchen twine?"

_'A window, huh?'_ Sweat ran down the back of Lucy neck. _'Now who do I know of that's fond of entering and leaving through those? Also, I think I remember Laki saying that Natsu arrived before her…'_ Then she gave herself a small shake, trying to clear the thought away. _'No, no. I can't always blame Natsu for everything. I'll wait until I have more evidence before I accuse anyone. And it's logical to think that if Max and Mirajane were the first ones in the guild, Natsu must have then come in afterward.'_

"Oh, before you go, Lucy," Richard said, snapping Lucy out of her headspace. "Could you get some more potatoes out of the pantry for us? We're running a little low, oh yeah."

"…Sure," she agreed, having no real reason or excuse to turn him down.

Entering the pantry, she shivered slightly. Although not at freezing temperature, it was definitely kept at a lower one than the rest of the guild in order to keep certain produce fresher. It was downright cold compared to the heat in the kitchen, however. It was also dimly lit, which left Lucy squinting into the space, trying to find a better light source.

"…Were you looking for something?"

The whispered breath on the back of her neck and the breathy words in her ear elicited a sudden shriek from Lucy. Clamping a hand down on the affected ear, and feeling goosebumps break out all along her spine, she twisted and stared at the man standing beside her. "Midnight!" she exclaimed. "You scared me!"

Rolling a shoulder noncommittally at her, Midnight reached over and flicked on the light switch for her. It didn't do much to illuminate the space further, but Lucy was appreciative of the extra light all the same.

"Thanks," she said, lowering her hand from her ear. "What are you doing skulking around in the pantry?"

"I was taking a nap," he informed her with a gesture towards a stack of rice bags piled behind him.

"Don't take a nap in here!" Lucy chided him. "You'll die of hypothermia!"

"You can't stop me; I'm nocturnal by nature so it's a struggle to stay awake at this hour as it is. Besides, there's no way I can leave with Mirajane out there, biting people's heads off. I'll take hypothermia over _that._"

Not enough arterial spray in the kitchen to suggest that that had actually happened, Lucy decided. But now she understood his unwillingness to leave the pantry. "She's outside right now, so if you want to leave, you can."

Midnight considered it, glancing longingly between the door and freedom, and the comfy(?) pile of rice. "I think I'll stay, all the same. If you need to know where something is though, I can lend a hand."

"I'm looking for the potatoes."

"Over here…"

Lucy followed him through the veritable maze of shelves and pallets of food. Honestly, she hadn't realized that Fairy Tail consumed that much food on the regular, but probably a good portion of it was for the party, or non-perishable.

Gesturing to a bunch of brown sacks, Midnight announced, "There they are. How many do you need?"

"One or two. I can handle them by myself though." Lucy reached down, hefting a sack onto her shoulder and tucking another under her arm. Suddenly she felt much more grateful for the hellish (in more ways than one) training sessions she'd endured with Taurus in pursuit of the star dresses. The potato sacks, while not exactly light, wouldn't break her as easily as they might have a year or two ago. "How long have you been in here?" she questioned Midnight, following him back to the pantry entrance. "You sure led me to the potatoes rather quickly."

"A…" He paused, a huge yawn interrupting his sentence. "…Couple of hours," he finished. "Maybe three or four, I'm not completely sure. Been updating the inventory lists over there." He pointed to the wall beside the light switch. "Since people have been in and out of here so often, and haven't been bothering to do it themselves."

"Huh." Honestly, it wouldn't have occurred to Lucy herself, either. "That's a good idea. I'm sure Mirajane will appreciate that." When the woman finally had the opportunity to, that is. "Keep up the good work."

"Wait a second," Midnight stated, causing Lucy to pause in her tracks. "Actually, about the inventory. I noticed that there's some unaccounted for."

"Oh?" questioned Lucy, her curiosity piqued. "Such as what?"

Midnight began to tick items off on his fingers. "Some fish from the freezer… along with some pre-seasoned chickens, two loaves of bread, a hunk of cheese, and some peppers. What do you think I should… do about this?"

"Hmm…" Lucy thought about it for a moment. It was odd that there was food missing already. _'Has someone on the kitchen crew been sneaking snacks? The peppers and fish are weird, but the rest could be sandwich supplies,' _she reasoned. _'Whole chickens, though? More than one? As a snack? That seems… unlikely. Also, I bet Mira was watching all of them like a hawk, and Midnight probably would have noticed if they'd taken them past him. His napping spot is right by the door after all.'_

For now, she shrugged it off. "I'll let Mirajane know later. When things aren't quite so hectic. By the way…" Lucy shifted the potato sacks' weight to be more comfortable. "Did you happen to see any missing kitchen twine? It disappeared sometime overnight."

"…I haven't seen any in here," Midnight informed her. "But there _was_ something weird I noticed last night."

"Oh?"

"My guild arrived yesterday afternoon and camped outside the city limits," he explained. "I'm nocturnal, though, thanks to my magic being more active in the middle of the night. So I ended up going for a stroll around the city late last night. I think I saw lights on in the guild, but only for a few moments."

"Around what time was this?"

"One or two in the morning."

Delight spread across Lucy's features. "Thank you! That helps a lot! And thanks again for showing me where these were, as well."

He nodded at her. "No problem." He then retreated to his pile of rice sacks. Leaving Lucy free to complete her potato delivery in peace.

"Here you go," she said, foisting off the sacks onto Max and Richard. Then she glanced around the kitchen. "Mirajane still out back?"

"Yes, she is," Richard confirmed. "I imagine seasoning enough meat to feed so many people will take her some time, oh yeah. Thank you for the potatoes!"

"No problem." Lucy hesitated a moment before leaving. "Hey, if you see Mirajane before I do, can you let her know that there's food missing from the pantry? More than what's being used for today, I mean." She already had a suspicion about the culprit for that particular crime, but she wanted to confirm something first. She also had other questions for them, besides.

"Oh, trust me," Max assured her, his voice faint, "I think she already knows about that. She gave… quite the speech to all of us about sneaking food."

Oh, dear. That didn't sound… pleasant.

"I'm guessing you met the pantry goblin, then?" Max continued.

Lucy barely withheld a snort of laughter at the mental image his word choice conjured up. "…Yes," she replied, a smile threatening to break out across her face. "Has he really been in there for as long as he says?"

Max let out a laugh, and Richard chuckled. "Pretty much."

So the only ones in their guild to escape the kitchen had been Jellal, Sorano, and Cobra. Of the three, Cobra had probably never even entered, knowing what was in store behind its doors. Sorano had made out of the situation in the best position, though, with her stolen snacks.

"Good luck with your search, oh yeah," Richard told her, prompting Max to chime in with his well-wishes, too.

She thanked them, and then departed the kitchen. The guild, although warm from all of the activity going on and the heat spillage from the kitchen, was still a mercifully cooler place to be. Lucy let out a sigh of relief at the temperature change. Then she glanced around, looking for her target. There was a lot fewer people running around now as the preparations began to wind down. However, the final decorations were still being hung up, Lucy saw, so she approached one of the remaining ladders.

"Lucy!" its occupant cried out happily upon seeing her. "Great timing! I need your help with something!"

"Yeah, what do you need, Natsu?" she asked, thrown for a loop by the sudden request.

"Can you take that last thing in the box to your left over to Lisanna's ladder? Freed changed his mind at the last minute about where he wants to hang that one hung up."

Lucy wasn't completely certain why Happy couldn't have done it – flitting about as he was above their heads – but she had no qualms about assisting with something so minor. She glanced around for the box in question, and upon spying it, she reached into it. Lucy let out a hiss as her hand caught on a piece of broken plastic, and she swiftly withdrew her hand. Blood welled on her finger. Peering into the box, Lucy discovered the culprit – the sharp edges of a hole in the plastic tub.

"You alright, Lucy?" Natsu called down, looking concerned. He sniffed the air. "I smell blood."

"Yeah!" she responded. "Just cut myself a little." She reached into the tub once more and pulled out the contents, careful not to touch the sharp hole this time. She held one end in each hand – taking care not to get the blood from her cut finger all over it – and held it aloft, displaying it for her teammate to see. "Is this it?" she called up to Natsu.

He gave her a thumbs up of approval. "That's it! Thanks for helping!"

That's when Lucy actually took a good look at what she was holding. It was a series of cutout letters, strung along in a row with thick white string. They spelled…. FONDUяS DAY?

"Fon…durs Day?" Lucy questioned aloud, peering at the backwards R in particular.

Natsu flushed heavily. "Shut up! We were kids when we made it!" he protested, though Lucy hadn't actually accused him of anything just yet. "Give us a break! We didn't know how to spell back then!"

"I'm pretty sure you don't know how to spell _now_," Lucy muttered to herself.

"Yeah I do! N-O-W! Ha! You see?!"

Lucy choked at his enthusiastic response. "Yeah!" she conceded. "I take back what I said!" Seeing how proud of himself he was, she just couldn't bring herself to correct his misunderstanding. "I'll take this to Lisanna, now!"

He waved vigorously at her, and then squawked when this upset his balance on the ladder. A cold sweat settled over Lucy as the metal ladder swayed back and forth, Natsu clinging to the contraption like a monkey. To her relief, it settled shortly, and Natsu shakily called out, "I'm okay!"

_'Happy, seriously, what are you doing?'_ Lucy internally questioned, eyeing the flying furball high above them. _'Your best friend nearly met his doom just now, and you didn't even notice?'_ She glanced down at the string of letters in her hands, still. _'Well, I guess I need to get this over to Lisanna.'_

Then, suddenly, it struck her that she'd had questions to ask Natsu when she'd originally gone looking for him. _'I totally let him distract me, didn't I?_' And now she'd… kind of lost the opportunity to do so entirely. At least for now. _'It can wait a little bit. I'll just have to ask him later,'_ Lucy decided, with a shake of her head.

Lisanna was already at the base of her ladder by the time Lucy reached her. "Hello, Lucy!" Lisanna greeted her, setting down the decorations that she'd been in the middle of pulling out. "What've you got there?"

Lucy held up the strung letters, and Lisanna smiled fondly at them. "I see you've found the misspelled Founders Day banner. Is it for me?"

"Yup." The blonde happily handed it over to the other girl. "Apparently Freed wants it in your section instead of Natsu's."

"That makes sense. That way it's more visible from the doors," Lisanna reasoned. "Still, though, this certainly takes me back… I missed celebrating Founders Day while I was in Edolas. The Fairy Tail guild over there didn't have this celebration. We were too busy looking over our shoulders for the Fairy Hunter. I was looking forward to participating again once I returned home, but…"

"A lot of stuff happened," Lucy consoled her. "So much stuff, that this is my first one ever, actually. In fact," she grumbled, "no one's seen fit to tell me anything about it." She'd been running around asking after Mirajane's twine so she hadn't exactly gotten the chance to ask about it, either.

Her confession took Lisanna aback. "Oh! I had no idea! Well, I can tell you about it, if you like."

The offer brightened Lucy considerably. "I'd like that, thank you."

Lisanna carefully set the banner down. "Founders Day is basically just the guild's anniversary. Its birthday, if you will. So every year we can, we pretty the place up and throw a party. Nothing super fancy – but there's a lot of food in the afternoon, and some party games outside when the weather allows. It's a lot of fun. These decorations," she explained, sweeping a hand at the plastic tubs, "were made by all of us guild children a long time ago. The previous ones had gotten too old, and we wanted to contribute to the festivities by replacing them ourselves." Lisanna's smile was soft, but brilliant, and her eyes full of joy. "It's one of my most cherished memories."

Hearing the love in Lisanna's voice brought out an answering smile on Lucy's face. "It sounds really wonderful, Lisanna." It also explained just why Mirajane was so stressed out about the food portion of the event going smoothly. She probably wanted it to be as special as possible for her sister.

Then Lucy glanced down at the rest of the decorations yet to be hung. Aside from the banner, it seemed as if the only things left were a few hand painted flower strings. Lucy leaned down and picked one up. "I saw these earlier, and I was wondering… what sort of flowers these are meant to be?" Lucy questioned. "I really like them."

"They're supposed to be pear blossoms, since it's springtime," Lisanna informed her, and then let out a laugh. "Though they look a lot more like lilies, don't they?"

Lucy looked over the flowers in her hands. "Yeah, they kinda do."

"You know… I think there's a commemorative photograph from when we made all this, if you want to take a look," Lisanna suggested helpfully. "I think it's kept behind the bar. Mira brought it in when we rebuilt the guild last year."

"Thanks!" Lucy flashed Lisanna a quick smile. "I'll definitely take a look at it." Seeing the miniature versions of her guild friends was always a treat for Lucy. She looked down at the flowers once more. A lot of meaning and feeling was wrapped up in such simple decorations. It reminded her of some of the things she used to put together with her mother's help. Handing it back to Lisanna, she told her, "I hope today turns out to be everything you were hoping for."

Taking the flowers, Lisanna nodded. "Thank you, Lucy. I'm sure it will be."

Lucy left Lisanna to finish her task in peace. She was really curious about that photograph, and with Natsu still up in the rafters, she felt she could use the break. And something to drink. All of the temperature changes and talking had left her throat feeling rather dry. So she approached the bar, greeting Kinana as she sat down.

"Would you like something to drink?" Kinana inquired.

"Some water, please." The barmaid nodded, setting about supplying the refreshment. "Oh, Kinana?"

"Yes?"

"Lisanna told me that there was a photo that Mirajane kept back behind the bar. Do you think I could see it? It was taken back when they were all kids."

"Hmm…" Kinana hummed under her breath, setting the water in front of Lucy. "Give me a minute to look for it, alright?" She walked off for a moment, bending down beneath the bar about halfway to the other end of it. When she returned, she was holding a small picture frame in her hands. "Is this what you were looking for?"

"Yes!" Lucy exclaimed in delight, taking the photograph from the woman. "Thank you!"

Kinana smiled at her. "You're most welcome, Lucy. Let me know if you need anything else."

"Will do." The blonde set the frame down flat against the bar, looking down at the photograph while she sipped her water. It was a cheerful scene; all of the guild children stood behind a worktable littered with craft supplies, bits of cardboard and colored string everywhere. Natsu even had paint on his cheek, and in the process of gluing something to Levy's hair. The rest of the children were all grinning at the camera, even Levy, and it brought out a soft smile on Lucy's face. Looking closer at the photograph, she could make out the infamously misspelled banner on the table, spread out in all of its glory. "Flounders Day," Lucy chuckled to herself. "The L must have fallen off over the years." Yet the backwards R remained. It must have been strung in the incorrect direction from the beginning. The photograph showed the embarrassing truth of the matter.

Finished with the photograph, Lucy sat up and looked around the guild. Natsu and Happy were working together to collapse the remaining ladders, and Lisanna was stacking the now empty decoration tubs together. Freed and Evergreen had joined the comatose Laki at her table, looking almost as exhausted as the Wood Make mage herself. Erza had reentered the guild at some point, and was now chatting amicably with Kinana at the far end of the bar. Of Cobra, Lucy could see no sign, so she assumed he remained outside. It probably wouldn't be too much longer before the rest of the guild showed up, and the partying truly got underway.

Compared to when she had first begun this investigation, Lucy felt at last invested in solving the mystery of what had befallen Mirajane's kitchen twine. It was shaping up to be quite the complicated situation. First there was issue of the termites. Laki had worked tirelessly to restore the guild in time for the celebration. And Mirajane had taken over the great task of feeding well over a hundred people, despite the large number of setbacks she'd faced. From the termites destroying her kitchen, to the missing twine, to the missing food in the pantry, and finally to the late start on the roast. It was far from a life or death situation. They were all very ordinary problems, in fact. But with Mirajane's hard work, and her desire to make the day special for Lisanna, it had come to mean something to Lucy as well.

And in all honesty, it was turning out to be just a bit fascinating as well. Perhaps a bit complicated, too. If she wanted to stand any chance of solving this, Lucy felt she needed to organize her thoughts and information. So she twisted around on her barstool until she faced Kinana, who had moved behind her to polish some of the glassware. "Kinana," she said, catching the purple haired woman's attention.

"Yes, Lucy? Would you like another drink?" the barmaid inquired, setting down the glassware in its place.

The celestial mage shook her head. "No, I'm good on that front, thanks. I was wondering if I could borrow some pen and paper, though. If you have any to spare."

Kinana nodded, disappearing for a moment beneath the bar. Reemerging a moment later, she handed the items over to Lucy. "Here you go."

"Thanks! This will help a lot."

The barmaid regarded Lucy curiously as she began to scribble things down. "What are you working on, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Solving a little mystery," Lucy explained. "Mirajane's missing kitchen twine."

"Oh, I see. Making any progress?"

Lucy nodded, setting the pen down, satisfied with everything she had written on the notepad. "I think so. Mind if I run this by you? It might help to get another perspective on this."

"Sure thing!" Kinana agreed, leaning forward on the bar. "I love mystery novels, actually. Though I'm not very good at figuring out who the culprit is, I'm afraid."

"Doesn't matter!" Lucy said cheerfully. "Sometimes it just helps to have a listening ear, you know?" She cleared her throat, and then started to read off what she'd written. "So Mirajane's kitchen twine is missing. Laki testified that she remembered it being in the kitchen last night before they left the guild. Max stated that he left the guild at the same time as Mirajane, around nine or ten in the evening. Then he and Mirajane both arrived at the guild at five-thirty this morning. By that point, the twine was gone. So we can conclude that it went missing sometime in that seven or eight hour period, right?"

"Sounds good to me," Kinana confirmed.

"Max also mentioned that a lot of people have keys to the guild. Is that true?"

Kinana nodded. "Yeah, quite a few people."

"And the security isn't too tight either," Lucy said with a wry smile.

Embarrassment swept across Kinana's face. "I'm afraid that that is also correct. I don't really think that anyone would stage a burglary just for some twine though, do you? That seems like a little too much to me. Especially since Mirajane would have happily given them the twine if they'd only asked."

"…Huh," Lucy muttered, her brow pulling down into a thoughtful frown. "I hadn't considered that. So maybe the termites came back and ate it after all?" Then she made a disgusted face. "I can personally attest to the fact that the termites were still around last night. At least in my apartment."

Kinana's eyes brimmed over with pity. "I suppose that's possible. Max cleaned the guild this morning, didn't he? The evidence of it could be gone."

Lucy scratched her head. "I don't really like that explanation, though. The main termite invasion was over with a couple of days ago, right? He would have noticed if more sawdust suddenly appeared after he cleaned it up the night before. Midnight also told me that he saw lights on in the guild late last night, and there's also the missing food from the pantry. Could the twine somehow be involved with that theft?"

"Could be." Kinana tapped the bar with a fingertip. "Maybe tying up the food to carry it out?"

"That sounds plausible," Lucy agreed. "It would definitely fit with what we've got…" She looked away from Kinana, allowing her gaze to wander aimlessly as she thought it over. Then she spied the photograph by Kinana's elbow, and inspiration struck her. "Kinana, can you hand me that photograph again?" When she did so, Lucy carefully took it from her and peered at it. "I knew something was off with that banner…" she muttered under her breath. Turning the photograph around for Kinana to see, Lucy pointed at the banner on the table in it. "Do you see anything different about this one versus the one that's now hanging up?"

Kinana narrowed her eyes at the photograph, and then glanced up at the banner – which was reversed from where they were sitting. Then she glanced back at the photograph. "The E and the L are missing," she concluded. "But couldn't they have just fallen off due to age?"

"Right. But look at the U. Its position has changed entirely compared to what it was years ago." Lucy tapped the glass front of the picture frame with her fingernail. "You see?"

Blinking rapidly, Kinana stared hard at the photographic banner. "You're right. That shouldn't be possible, should it?"

Lucy shook her head, a grin spreading across her lips. "Nope," she said, emphasizing the p with a pop of her lips. "It's not possible, not without taking all of the letters off and restringing them. Furthermore… look at the color of the string in the photograph. Lots of different colors, right? Very festive and bright. Very eye-catching." Kinana nodded. "But I just got a good look at the decorations just a little bit ago. And the string… was _white._"

Understanding dawned on Kinana's face. "Someone must have replaced the string," she concluded breathily, her excitement threatening to pour over. "And Mirajane's kitchen twine was white."

"Yes!" The pieces of the puzzle started to click together in Lucy's head. "The termites must have eaten the original string, or the original decorations entirely." Which would explain why Lisanna's memories of the flowers was different. "Laki told me that termites can even chew right through plastic, so the tubs wouldn't have been much of a deterrent." And her cut up hand was proof of that. "It fits. It fits perfectly."

Kinana lifted herself off the counter and clapped her hands. "That's wonderful! Do you know who the culprit is?"

Lucy hesitated for a moment, and then looked out over where Lisanna and Natsu stood next to Erza down the bar, all three of them chatting cheerfully together. "I think I do." She stood up. "Sorry Kinana, I need to talk to Mirajane now."

"Oh, okay," Kinana said, as she watched Lucy leave. She would have liked to have heard who the culprit was, but she could press Lucy for more details later. As she put away the photograph, Kinana silently wished Lucy good luck.

* * *

Mirajane had returned to the kitchen, and that was where Lucy found her, gathering large amounts of stuffing into huge bowls with which to stuff the gargantuan roast outside.

"Mira!" Lucy called to her.

The woman looked up and smiled at her. "Lucy. You have wonderful timing. Help me carry these outside?"

So excited in what she had to tell her, Lucy barely minded that she was being effectively conscripted into yet another task. "Sure thing. I have something to talk to you about, though. Mind if we walk and talk?"

"Not at all," Mirajane told her, placing a bowl into Lucy's waiting arms and scooping one into her own. "What did you want to talk about?"

"It's about your missing kitchen twine," Lucy informed her. "I know it seems a little silly, but I've been trying to solve the mystery of what happened to it."

"Oh?" prompted Mirajane. One of her pale eyebrows raised delicately. "And what did you find out?"

"I think it was… Natsu," Lucy confessed as they exited the guild and made their way to the waiting roast. "I believe he stole it in order to remake and restring the Founders Day decorations after termites ate the original ones. He must have waited until everyone went home, then entered through an unlocked window. Then, while he was taking it, he decided to go for a midnight snack as well, and raided the pantry. The missing pre-seasoned chickens are for his favorite dish, Fire Chicken, weren't they? And I've never known anyone else to eat several whole chickens as a snack, aside from him. Happy was probably with him, too, given that there's fish missing as well. The fact that he was at the guild so early is proof. I've never known Natsu to get up early unless he'd already stayed up all night. He nearly fell off a ladder earlier, too."

Mirajane hummed in thought. "Is that so?" She set her bowl of stuffing down next to the roast, and Lucy followed suit. "What do you think his motive was?"

"I'm guessing that he wanted to keep Lisanna from being disappointed that the decorations you all made as children were no more, especially on her first Founders Day since returning to the guild," Lucy concluded.

The white haired woman smiled at her. "That is some excellent deduction, Lucy," she praised. "I'm very impressed."

Lucy's heart swelled at hearing that from Mirajane, and her face flushed red. "Thank you!"

"However," Mirajane continued, the single word dashing Lucy's delight as quickly as she'd raised it up. "I'm afraid that Natsu didn't do it."

"He… didn't?" Lucy questioned, now thoroughly confused.

Mirajane shook her head. "He is the most obvious culprit, isn't he? That would be why, when I entered the kitchen first thing this morning and found him and Happy passed out on the floor in a pile of their decimated leftovers, I made sure to question them… _very thoroughly_ about their afterhours activities in my kitchen. They confessed to stealing the pantry food, but…"

* * *

**_That Morning_**

"We swear we didn't do anything other than raid the food!" Natsu shrieked, as a dark shadow bore down on him. Beside him, Happy sobbed fat tears of terror. "There was just no food in our house is all! Please believe me! We didn't do anything else! I swear! I'm so sorry! I won't do it again! I promise! Please spare us!"

"Don't worry, I shall."

Natsu heaved a sigh of relief.

"Provided you clean up after yourselves. Now get on your knees, and _lick it clean_."

* * *

**_The Present_**

"He said he didn't have anything to do with the disappearance of the kitchen twine," Mirajane concluded. "And I have to say that I believe him. His terror was very convincing. So was his dedication to cleaning up his mess." She let out a bright giggle. "People don't normally lie to Halphas, besides."

Lucy shuddered violently, prickles of fear shooting up her spine. Yeah, she very much doubted that Natsu would have lied to Mirajane under the pressure she must have put him under.

"Listen… Lucy…" Mirajane placed a hand on Lucy's shoulder, her eyes tired. "I really appreciate you taking it upon yourself to look into this on my behalf. But perhaps it's best left alone. It's not all that big of a problem, after all. And Sawyer brought me the replacement twine just a little while ago. You should just go visit with everyone and enjoy the party. That's why we're putting it on in the first place, you know? For everyone to have some fun."

Looking into Mirajane's bright blue eyes, Lucy wondered if maybe Cobra had oversold the impact of the missing kitchen twine to her.

"Alright," she agreed, feeling more than a little dejected at her failure to solve such a simple mystery. "I think I'll give up on this."

Mirajane moved her hand from Lucy's shoulder, placing it briefly on Lucy's cheek. "Don't look so down, Lucy. It seems like you put a lot of work into this. I'm very happy that you made such an effort for me." Her hand returned to her side. "Could I maybe ask you to do one more thing for me, though?" When Lucy nodded, she continued, "Can you fetch Erza for me? I'm afraid that we'll have to cut the roast down into smaller portions in order to get it cooked in time for dinner. I would have told her sooner, but I needed to assess how much stuffing we had, and the roasting time per kilogram of meat."

"Sure thing, Mira," Lucy told her, a smile creeping back onto her face. It was nice, to feel needed.

"Thank you so much!"

Lucy left Mirajane, and headed back for the guild. She did catch sight of Cobra just before she reentered. He was looking her way, with an expression on his face that Lucy couldn't read. Brushing it off, she stepped back into the guild hall. She didn't have to search very long for Erza. She was right where Lucy had last seen her – at the bar. Natsu and Lisanna had wandered off to Laki's corner with Freed and Evergreen.

Approaching Erza, she tapped the red haired mage on the shoulder. "Hey, Erza?" When her friend looked up at her, Lucy jerked her thumb in the direction of the exit. "Mirajane needs your help with… Are you okay?" Lucy withdrew her hand in surprise as Erza flinched hard.

"I'm… I'm fine," Erza told her. A huge yawn overtook her. "I'm sorry, I'm just very tired. What did Mirajane need?"

Unconvinced, Lucy slowly informed her, "Mirajane needs your help again with the roast. It has to be cut into smaller portions in order to cook faster. Are you sure you're alright? I'm sure Freed or someone else could cut it up instead if you're too tired. You really look like you could use some rest." In fact, her face was starting to resemble a zombie's more than a person's. The dark circles under her eyes had grown even further. At this rate, some unfortunate soul was going to compare her to a panda and get slaughtered for it.

Erza shook her head, and stood up from her stool. "I'll be fine, Lucy. I appreciate your concern, though." She gave Lucy a fond smile, and ruffled the blonde's hair as she passed by. "Thank you for delivering the message."

Lucy held a hand up to her mussed hair, trying to tame it back to its original state as she watched Erza walk away. _'I guess even Erza needs a break sometimes,'_ she thought, slightly bewildered by the odd interaction. _'Or maybe a long vacation.'_

Lacking aught else to do, Lucy sat down in Erza's vacated barstool. Now that she lacked a purpose, her failure to solve her mystery pressed hard against her heart. Cobra's words from before now rang clearly in her head, that if she couldn't handle even something so minor as missing kitchen twine, then she had no business trying to write a mystery herself. At this point, maybe it would be better to just let it go, as Mirajane had suggested. Cut her losses, and enjoy the party with her friends. Lucy closed her eyes and sighed. It wouldn't be a bad thing, to celebrate all of the hard work her friends had put into the day.

But it still rankled.

Mirajane had worked hard. Very hard. She deserved to have an answer behind one of the setbacks she'd faced today.

The answer she had come up with… it had felt so right to Lucy. It neatly wrapped up everything that Lucy had seen and heard. It still felt right to Lucy. And yet Mirajane had provided a good argument as to why it was wrong.

It bothered her.

Where had her reasoning gone wrong? Lucy wracked her brain, trying to force all of the pieces she held in her possession together. Could the twine have been taken for a reason other than what she'd devised? Could the decorations have simply been restrung over the years, unbeknownst to Lucy? Could the culprit have been the termites after all? Or could…

Or could Lucy have simply accused the wrong person?

The thought hit her like a freight train. What if everything she'd concluded had been correct? If she discarded Natsu's actual crime of food theft, what was she left with? Lights in the guild at night, a termite infestation a couple days old, broken plastic tubs, and recreated decorations...

Who had the decorations first?

Lucy abruptly stood up, her mind racing faster than Laxus's lightning. That was it. If the decorations had really been destroyed by the termites, then who would have discovered it first?

She glanced over at Lisanna. The white haired girl and Natsu had been the first ones seen with the tubs, by Laki when she arrived at the guild early in the morning. Logically, it couldn't have been Lisanna, as she would not have had any compunctions about asking Mirajane for the twine nor would she have feared revealing the theft to her beloved older sister. And Mirajane had already eliminated Natsu as a suspect.

So who was left that had motive, opportunity, and the means to commit the crime?

Lucy knew. Lucy knew who the culprit was. All of her evidence was at best circumstantial, but… the culprit was plain to see.

"Kinana," she addressed the barmaid. "Can I have that photograph again?"

Once she had it, Lucy quickly strode towards the back exit of the guild, and out towards where Erza and Mirajane stood around now several smaller roasts. Mirajane was tying off her third stuffed roast – with Erza cutting the twine – by the time Lucy reached them.

The barmaid set the roast down, and then looked over at Lucy with surprise. "Lucy! Did you need something? You have quite the serious expression on your face."

Erza, too, regarded her teammate with curiosity. "Something wrong, Lucy?"

"I figured it out," she blurted out, the information tumbling over and over in her head, struggling with the need to come out. "I know who the culprit is."

Confused, Mirajane tilted her head. "But I thought we were done with this already?"

Lucy shook her head. "Sorry, Mira. I couldn't let it go. Do you want to hear who it was? If you don't, I can keep it to myself."

"No, no." Mirajane urged Lucy on with a wave of her hands. "If you're quite certain, I'd be interested in hearing about it."

Raising a shaking finger, Lucy pointed towards the culprit. "Your culprit… is right there."

"…Me?!" Erza spluttered, staring at Lucy like she'd grown a second head. "What are you saying here, Lucy? I don't even know what's going on! What am I supposed to have done?"

"You stole Mirajane's kitchen twine sometime late last night," Lucy accused her teammate.

Erza's expression could summon storm clouds. "I did no such thing!"

"I hope you have some sort of proof, Lucy?" Mirajane inquired calmly, cutting through Erza's anger and bringing it to an abrupt halt.

"Yes…" Erza said, her eyes narrowing at Lucy. "Where is your proof?"

"I have no physical proof," Lucy stated bluntly. "But I can prove it through logical reasoning and circumstantial evidence."

"That's enough for me," said Mirajane, much to Erza's bewilderment.

"But Mirajane-"

"It's not like this is a criminal case, Erza," Mirajane said, interrupting Erza's half-formed protest. "Let's just consider this a thought exercise between friends, hmm? Unless you have something to hide?"

Sweat broke out on Erza's forehead. "…No," she conceded weakly. "I don't have anything to hide. But don't think I'll take this laying down." She faced Lucy squarely, her chin up and her back straight as a rod. "Be prepared to fight for this, Lucy. I will counter anything you have to throw at me."

Lucy suddenly wondered if maybe this had not been a good idea, after all. Erza despite being her good friend, was definitely the confrontational sort. And she did have something to hide and protect, after all. She wouldn't be much of a knight if she didn't even try to defend herself. At the same time, however, Lucy could feel a rush of adrenaline through her veins, making her almost lightheaded with excitement. Was this how Natsu felt every time he challenged Erza or Laxus? Because if so, Lucy felt like she could understand his motivations for the first time. But whereas Natsu's realm was in physical and magical prowess… Lucy's was in mental reasoning. She liked her chances here.

"I wouldn't expect anything else from you, Erza. If I'm wrong, I'll treat you to as much cake as you like." It would break her wallet to do so, but Lucy fully intended to keep that promise if she turned out to be wrong.

That seemed to satisfy her friend. "Very well. Now tell me just how you think I could have done this."

"Simply put, you have a key to the guild," Lucy told her. "Last night, you came here to take the twine, and you walked in through the front doors. Then when you left, you locked them behind you again."

Erza shook her head at the argument. "I may have a key, Lucy, but so do several other people. And Mirajane just informed me about Natsu's little midnight snack. Can you be sure he didn't eat the string by mistake?"

Lucy hadn't actually considered that particular explanation, so it threw her for a second. "No," she countered, after a moment spent collecting herself. "Natsu's often rash and irresponsible, but he's not stupid. I doubt he would have eaten such a large amount of twine by accident. Not even if he'd set it on fire first, since he doesn't care for the taste of his own flames. Besides which… Midnight was wandering around the town last night, and happened to pass by our guild."

Now Erza began to look actively uncomfortable. "What was Macbeth thinking?"

"He couldn't sleep. Something about his magic making him nocturnal." His real name was Macbeth? Lucy would have to file that tidbit away for later. "Regardless, he saw lights on in the guild around one or two in the morning."

"Natsu, no doubt," Erza stated.

Lucy shook her head. "Nope. Because Natsu raided the kitchen as soon as he realized that there was no food in his house. We got back in town around the same time as Mirajane was locking up the guild for the night. Even providing for the time it would have taken for him to stop by his house, and then get back to the guild, he would have accomplished that well before Midnight arrived. You, on the other hand, had to stop by the Fairy Hills' dorms and unpack all of the stuff you brought with you."

A muscle under Erza's eye twitched. "I could have left it to unpack later, Lucy. That doesn't prove anything."

"Yes, it does," Lucy insisted. "Because at that point, you needed to make sure to finish your preparations for today."

"I went for the hunt this morning," Erza stated. "I… overslept after getting home so late last night. The only thing I'm guilty of is being late with the roast."

Lucy waggled a finger at her. "I'm not talking about the roast, but I do believe you when you say you set out to get it late. Because you were busy dealing with something else all night long."

"Just what are you getting at, Lucy?" asked Erza. "What else could I have been doing?"

"Checking on the decorations for the party… which were stored in your rooms."

Mirajane blinked owlishly in surprise. "I'm surprised that you knew that, Lucy. Yes, Erza was in charge of storing the decorations for us. She has a large number of rooms available, and she insisted on the honor."

Erza looked as if she'd swallowed a bug.

"Of course she did," Lucy said, with a fond smile. "Erza… has trouble letting go of anything even remotely sentimental to her. It's why she takes so much stuff with her everywhere on jobs." Then Lucy cleared her throat. "Getting back to the point, however…. When you put your stuff away, you must have discovered quite a lot of damage to everything in your storerooms, am I right, Erza?"

"No," Erza stated, shaking her head. "My storerooms are perfectly intact, Lucy."

"If we went up there, would we really find that to be the case?"

Erza swallowed thickly. "If you insist."

"Sorry Erza, but you're horrible at bluffing," Lucy informed her. "Besides, I don't have to see it to know what I'll find. Lots and lots of termite damage. It must have been pretty horrible to walk in on that, am I right? All of your possessions, and I'm sure a good portion of your weapons. All gone."

Erza remained silent.

"Which is why, when you checked the tubs where the decorations were stored, it was especially painful to find that all of the decorations you'd made with the rest of the guild children… had been eaten. I don't know where you found the cardboard to remake most of it – maybe you salvaged it from other things that had survived, or you went to a nearby town to get it. But string long and strong enough to hold everything up isn't easy to find. Especially not at night, when all of the stores are closed. That's when you remembered that Mirajane keeps quite a lot of good string for cooking at the guild." Lucy paused to take a deep breath. "You didn't intend to cause any trouble by taking it – you didn't think she'd miss it. When you were there, you saw Natsu passed out in the kitchen, I'm sure. But not wanting to draw attention to yourself, you didn't wake him up. Besides, he had clearly committed a far greater crime than yours, right? Mirajane would inevitably punish him herself."

"That doesn't prove that the decorations were remade in the first place," Erza said weakly. "It seems like your argument hinges on that fact. But they weren't. They're the same decorations from when we were kids."

Lucy shook her head sadly. "Sorry, Erza, but I do have physical proof of that." She held out the photograph she'd snagged from Kinana just before coming outside. "You see? The banner in this photo is markedly different from the one currently hanging up. You see? The E and the L are missing, and the U has changed places."

"_FLOUNDERS_ DAY?!" Erza blurted out, taking the frame from Lucy and clutching it for dear life.

"Exactly," Lucy said. "The string in the photo is also multicolored, you'll notice. The decorations here are strung along _white_ string. Was the twine you had white, Mirajane?"

"It was," Mirajane confirmed, a wry smile on her lips. "I'm sorry Erza, but this looks pretty damning."

Clearing her throat, Erza shook her head. "All this proves is that the decorations were restrung at some point. It doesn't mean that it happened last night, or that I did it. Or that it was even Mirajane's twine, for that matter. This proves nothing."

"Again, I'm sorry Erza. But Lisanna said that the flowers were different from the original ones. The first ones were pear blossoms. The ones hanging up are lilies. Not only were the decorations recreated entirely… lilies are your favorite flower, aren't they? All you remembered when you redid these was that the banner was misspelled, and that the flowers were white. You couldn't remember the exact misspelling or what type of flower, so you made your best guess as to what they were."

"It still doesn't prove it was me," Erza continued to insist.

"Erza, it couldn't have been anyone _except for you_."

The redhead choked at Lucy's strong words. "Then care to enlighten me?"

"There was something important that you didn't realize, something that no one on our team knew about. And it's why I know that your storerooms were destroyed," Lucy told her. "It's the fact that… the entire town had been hit by a plague of termites while we were gone."

"Is… is this true?" Erza glanced at Mirajane, checking with her. "The entire… town?"

Mirajane nodded. "Yes, I'm afraid so. It caused a lot of trouble."

"So it was rather telling when you suggested that Natsu had eaten the twine," Lucy stated, picking up where she left off. "Most everyone else would have immediately thought it was the termites that did it. No one would have felt guilty over the destruction of the decorations. It would have just been one more thing that the termites had taken away from them. It had to have been someone who didn't know about the termites. Someone who wasn't here at the time, and wouldn't have noticed immediately since Laki had exhausted herself with repairing any visible structural damage. Therefore, it could only be a member of _our_ team that committed the crime. It wasn't Natsu, as we've already established. And…"

"It could have been you! Or Gray!" Erza blurted out, pointing a finger at Lucy in accusation.

Before Lucy could take the chance to refute Erza's accusation herself, Mirajane beat her to it. "Actually, Gray couldn't have. I received a phone call as soon as I arrived at the guild this morning – Gray was arrested for the usual charges last night. But everyone at the guild had already gone home last night, so they waited until this morning to call. Gray spent all night in a cell, I'm afraid."

Lucy raised a hand to her forehead, covering her eyes. "Gray, what the hell." No wonder she hadn't seen him around today.

Mirajane giggled. "I was planning on getting Loke to bail him out, since he has a good relationship with some of the officers."

_'Of course he does,'_ Lucy thought, lowering her hand from her face.

"I was going to pass along the message as soon as I next saw you, Lucy." Mirajane shrugged. "With everything that's been happening, though, I forgot."

_'Poor Gray. He must still be waiting in his cell for someone to come rescue him.'_

"Aside from that, though, it still couldn't have been Gray that stole the twine," Lucy continued. "Because it was stored in Erza's rooms at Fairy Hills, where men aren't allowed to go. And it wasn't me, either. The hotel I checked into last night can confirm it, if you like. Since Wendy and Carla weren't with us on this job… that leaves just you, Erza."

Wilting, Erza finally nodded in defeat. "I admit it. You got me dead to rights, Lucy. I stole the twine." She sniffled, her lower lip quivering. "I was just… I was so upset when I saw what had happened to all of my things. And then the decorations… that we had all made together… They had been in _my_ care. They were _my_ responsibility to keep safe. I…" She wiped away the tears brimming in her eyes with the back of one hand. "So I stayed up all night trying to make them again. I barely finished before Lisanna came by to pick them up. Then I still had to get the meat for the roast as well." Erza let out a hiccup. "And now you're saying that it was all for naught? That I if I had just admitted that they were gone, it would have all been fine, regardless?"

Lucy stepped closer to Erza, and took her hands into her own. "No, Erza. That's not it. Thanks to you, Lisanna gets to see the decorations you all made as children once again. And the guild looks amazing with them. You did so much to make today a success. You just had one oversight in not telling Mirajane about taking her twine is all."

Mirajane nodded. "Don't worry, Erza. You did your best. I'm not angry."

_'Really?'_ Lucy mentally questioned. _'What about all the people you took your frustrations out on today?'_ Then again, some of them had committed some sort of crime, hadn't they? Like Sorano and Natsu. Or had been forcefully conscripted into helping for a party they themselves would be attending. The only person with lasting trauma was probably Natsu. And he kind of deserved it… no, he definitely deserved it. Natsu had only suffered the full consequences for his actions.

"…Yeah," Lucy said, finally releasing Erza's hands and gently prying the photograph from her. "How about you go lie down in the infirmary? We'll come get you when it's time for the party and food. You can catch a little sleep in the meantime."

"That is an excellent suggestion," Mirajane affirmed. "I think I can manage from here."

Erza sniffled again. "If you're both sure?" The pair nodded at her. "Alright, I'll see you both later, then…"

The exhausted mage meandered back to the guild, Mirajane and Lucy watching until she disappeared inside.

"Lucy… now that Erza is getting some rest…" Mirajane turned her bright blue eyes on the celestial mage, who gulped at having the full force of Mirajane's attention on her. "…Isn't it time you went and helped Gray?"

"Yes!" Lucy squeaked, bolting for the guild doors. "I'm on it!"

* * *

Several hours and one embarrassing bailout later, Lucy woke the slumbering Erza up just as she'd promised. "Hey, Erza," Lucy called softly to the redhead, gently shaking her shoulder. "Time to get up for the party."

Erza made grumbly noises at being woken up. Yawning, she then stretched in bed, before blearily sitting up. "What time is it?"

"About three. The appetizers are being passed around, and everyone's starting to play games. The roasts won't be ready until about seven or eight." Later than Mirajane had originally wanted, but it wasn't as if Fairy Tail wouldn't make good on the excuse to party even longer into the night as a result.

The redhead nodded. "Alright. I'll be out in a bit."

Lucy laughed lightly. "I'll see you out there, then." She left, Erza yawning hugely behind her.

She may have fibbed a little to Erza about the level of partying going on. The drinking had been under way for some time already. Natsu was already leading the table surfing races, with Cana taking bets. Elfman and Laxus were engaged in an arm wrestling competition with Gajeel heckling both parties in a way that was certain to earn him swift retribution here shortly. People were taking turns on the double roasting spits in order to keep anyone from missing out – right now it seemed to be Alzack and Levy's turns. Gray was mercifully fully clothed, thanks to the Lost And Found at the police department having located his shorn clothing from the night before, without any mysterious stains on them for once. And most people had just broken off into smaller groups, chatting, drinking copiously, and eating any appetizers they could snag.

But there was someone in particular that Lucy wanted to have a word with herself.

Lucy wandered around the groups of people, searching for the person she needed. She found him, eventually, standing a ways apart from the main group of celebrators with his guildmate, Sawyer.

"I can't believe you let me search the entire town for twine without giving me some kind of heads up!" Sawyer lectured his friend. "I wasted so much time trying to find it, and even had to go to the next town!"

Cobra simply laughed at Sawyer's distress. "Exercise is good for you!" he teased.

"I'm guessing that you just enjoyed the thought of me running around like a chicken with its head cut off," Sawyer observed sourly.

"I'm not going to deny that. That was definitely a bonus." Then he glanced over at Lucy, who was waiting patiently for a break in their conversation. "But hold that thought – it looks like we've got company."

"Hello Sawyer," Lucy greeted the man. "Do you mind if I borrow, uh… Erik, for a little bit?" Cobra's real name felt strange on her tongue.

Pleased surprise flickered across Sawyer's face at hearing his friend's name spoken aloud. It was a stark contrast to Cobra's – the man looked like he'd just swallowed something sour. "Yeah, sure. No problem. I was thinking about getting more food, anyway." He gave them a short wave as he left.

"I don't recall telling you my name," Cobra grumbled as soon as Sawyer was out of earshot.

"Sorry, would you prefer I call you Cobra?"

He made another disgruntled noise. "No, Erik is fine."

_'Then what's with the face?'_ Lucy wondered. _'Is it because he didn't get to tell it to me himself?'_

Despite having clearly heard her internal monologue, Cobra said nothing in response to it. So maybe that line of reasoning wasn't too far off.

"So about the case of the missing twine..." Lucy began aloud.

Cobra nodded. "I heard. Congratulations on figuring it out."

Lucy snorted at him. "Thank you, but I have a bone to pick with you about that. Why on Earthland did you just sit back and let me struggle with it? I know you knew that it was Erza that committed the crime. You would have found out the second she returned. And yet you kept it to yourself."

"I just wanted to watch you struggle," Cobra confessed with a slight shrug. "It was entertaining."

She rolled her eyes at him. Honestly, why had she expected a different answer? "But you didn't even tell Mirajane. Why not?"

"Because she already knew."

His blunt admission took Lucy aback a pace. "She… she did?" Come to think of it, this would explain a lot, though. Why Mirajane hadn't seemed surprised at the culprit being Erza, and why she'd told Lucy to drop it initially. "But… how did she know?"

Cobra jerked a thumb in Natsu's direction. "It was thanks to him. When Mirajane found him in the kitchen, he woke up terrified that Erza was coming to beat him up for his transgression." A cruel smile spread across his face. "Only to find someone far worse."

Just what had Mirajane done to him?

"At any rate, he must have woken up at some point during Erza's theft of the twine and seen her briefly before falling back asleep. Mirajane was able to put two and two together fairly quickly. She didn't know why, though, which is why she didn't stop you entirely."

Lucy stood there, absolutely dumbfounded. "So wait… you actually knew from the beginning that it was Erza, then? _What the hell?"_

A laugh burst from Cobra, a far brighter sound than Lucy had believed him capable of. "Your face is priceless!" he informed her with a wide grin. "Yeah, I knew from the start!" After a moment, he composed himself, and eyes Lucy up and down. "Although I must say that you surprised me when you told Mirajane with Erza right there. I was a little impressed."

Redness creeped into Lucy's cheeks. "I just thought that it was important, you know? For Erza to hear that it wasn't her fault that the decorations were destroyed. That was all." Then she sighed heavily. "But I'd be lying if I said that my enthusiasm hadn't played a part in that. Now I'm wondering if I should have kept it all to myself, and not let my excitement get away from me. I could have hurt her really badly if I'd been wrong." Lucy turned, and watched Erza from afar as she chatted with Freed. "In the end, what did I accomplish by solving it? Mirajane already knew. Erza had already done the damage to herself. Finding out the truth didn't change any of the consequences that taking the twine resulted in. And it was such a small crime, at that."

Instead of teasing her, or deflecting from what Lucy had just confessed, Cobra seemed to consider her words for a long minute. "That's not really different from a larger crime though, is it?" He met Lucy's startled gaze calmly. "In a murder, what does catching the killer really resolve? The person is still dead. The family still grieves."

Lucy stared deep into his purple eye, trying to name the emotion she saw swimming in it. Regret, maybe? "But at least with a killer," she said carefully, "you might prevent them from killing anyone else."

"Perhaps," Cobra replied. He jerked his chin in the direction of Erza once more. "Do you think she'll ever do anything like this again? Now that you've confronted her with her actions?"

Turning away from his intense stare, Lucy looked back over at her redheaded friend in the distance. "…No, I don't think she will," Lucy murmured, mostly to herself. "I think next time, she'll ask for help."

"Sounds like a satisfactory end to me. You said it yourself – she needed to hear what you had to say."

"Yeah… maybe."

They stood together in companionable silence for several minutes, watching the gathered partygoers enjoying themselves to their fullest.

"…Erik," Lucy said, catching the man's attention. "Why did you ask me to solve this? You already knew the answer, and Mirajane already knew the answer. So why get _me_ to do it?"

A sly smile spread across his face. "Maybe I was just feeling altruistic?" When Lucy turned to stare at him blankly, he shrugged slightly. "How about we make that the next mystery for you to solve? Wouldn't be any fun if I just told you, right?"

Lucy was unimpressed by the suggestion. "It wasn't just because you thought you'd have fun at my expense."

"I won't lie – that was definitely a factor in the decision." He let out another laugh. "But no, that wasn't the reason."

Wracking her brain, Lucy struggled to come up with an answer to this one.

"Take your time with it," Cobra suggested. "For now, why don't we just enjoy this party? I think that table surfing competition is calling my name, anyway."

This elicited a small laugh from Lucy. "I think you'll regret doing it, but I'm not going to miss watching that for the world. Let's go!" Grabbing his hand, she led the way to their next destination.

To her quiet surprise, he didn't take back his hand, and calmly allowed himself to be dragged away.


End file.
